Come for the utterly disturbing cover art, stay for the old school brutality! Looking at the cover, one would expect a very brutal, atonal, and percussive onslaught to come blasting out of their speakers; something much too heavy to make any musical heads or tails of. However, Darth treats us to some mid-paced thrashy death metal that lets out occasional bursts of speed between the headbanging grooves. Fans of Obituary and Possesed should take heed, though this band hails from the fatherland, they take most of their influence from the sunny state of Florida, and end up with a record that admittedly has its flaws, but is nonetheless a solid work of thrashy death metal.

Things begin a bit slowly with opener Wall Of Ignorance, but the song quickly moves into a speedy verse and a fucking thrashy chorus that begs you to scream along. Speaking of which, vocalist Adam Zietek has a very intense, throaty roar that gets a bit grating towards the albums completion, but genuinely sounds like he is a few syllables away from running his vocal chords in each song, and gives each one an added boost of intensity as a result. Guitarist Matthias Klinkmann and bassist Dirk Alberti stick to the formula of keeping their riffs simple and effective by strongly locking in with drummer Ralle. Nothing really gets musically technical at all, and there is little in the way of immediately catchy riffs, but instead, the band seems to act as one big instrument, working together to speed and slam their way through each track. Tracks like I Should Be Dead, which blasts its way along until a sick tremolo riff meets the half timed rhythm in the chorus and solidifies the track as one of the killers on the album. The tempo of the next few songs are quite different, as Forbidden Happiness shows the band playing in a more death n’ roll style, similar to Six Feet Under. Age of Depression< and Self-Exorcisim follow the same style as Forbidden Happiness, but drag on a bit too much and lack the energy of that track. Things thankfully begin to speed up again with the almost black metal-ish opening riff of the self titled track, which also sees itself slow down for the chunky groove in the chorus. Koma ends the album on a strong note, a somewhat rare occurrence in death metal, as it gives the album that same shot of energy that the opening track did.

In terms of production, each instrument has a nice amount of room to breathe, and contribute to a slightly raw atmosphere. Nothing cold or grim here, just a bit of roughness around the edges to give the songs a slightly dirtier bite. Overall, this album is quite solid, quite short (not necessarily a bad thing for this kind of metal), but nothing too special. This is an impressive, though slightly aged debut for the band that shows some real promise. If they can manage to inject just a few more drops of intensity, and a few more liters of originality, they could really have something here. As for now, we have a solid slab of straightforward death metal, good for a few spins before it rests on the shelf for quite some time.

Killing Songs : Wall of Ignorance, I Should Be Dead, Forbidden Happiness, Koma